Le Garage....

[Milou]

This thread is about a garage project I've been thinking about for quite some time now. I thought of sharing it with the registry, I hope you'll like it:

After renting space in several parking lots around Geneva, I've been looking to rent a barn in the countryside to store the cars together and have a cool space to hang out.

At one point, we were up to 6 friends, with about 20 cars, and were hoping to find an industrial warehouse to rent together, but still found nothing.

So, I finally looked elsewhere, and decided to build a garage (just sat on the machine, couldn't drive the thing):



In came the concrete:



I didn't realize that water and electricity pipes required such a LARGE trench (I hoped my wife didn't mind. She did. 0ooops....):

[Milou]

The size of the garage was limited by strict regional building laws: it couldn't be larger than 50 square meters (580 square feet I think?) on the ground, and couldn't be taller than 4.5 meters (15 feet).

Taking those measurements into account, I chose to build a very traditional "period" garage, suited for 3 cars, and a small mezzanine (half-floor) easily accessible.

I downloaded from Google a program called "Sketchup", and attempted to design what I was looking to achieve (don't laugh, it took me hours):



It would have 3 barn-like wooden doors, a traditional roof with a visible wooden structure, but thermally isolated in order to be heated during the winter months.

After the concrete floor, up came the walls:



A concrete slab ran across all three doors to allow one single space with no internal columns.



By this stage, our garden was pretty much destroyed. I didn't mind much (I was building a garage!) but obviously my other half wasn't very pleased:

[Milou]

Very quickly it started to look like a proper building (well almost).

By then, I couldn't help imagining where the cars would go, the couch, the fridge, the posters (call me optimist!)...



A second slab of concrete adjacent to the garage would house a garden shed, as it became evident that no lawnmore or rake could be stored in "Le garage":



Very slowly (very...) the carpenters began working on the roof structure:

[Milou]

The roof structure took about a month and a half to build:



The mezzanine as well:



We opted for round windows on the side walls for a traditional light effect. An additional window was cut into the roof for the mezzanine and to provide additional natural light:

[Milou]

The garden shed was put in place while the garage's roof progressed nicely:



Inside, the wooden beams were being painted white:



Roof tiles were aligned showing different combinations of shade and shape:

[Milou]

Final preparation outside:



Final preparation inside:



Tiles being placed at last:

[Milou]

The roof done, copper was used for the rain gutters, providing that traditional look:



After a few weeks, the doors finally arrived:



We tested an old green shade and I thought it looked good:



The mezzanine stairs (more a ladder) arrived as well:

[Pieter Paul]

That looks fantastic! Love the traditional building style. I don't want to know what it costs but it sure looks nice. Can't wait to see pics with the cars inside. Reminds me of some of the garages in the book "Dream Garages". Thanks for sharing!

[Milou]

Thanks Pieter. After 3 months, the building is almost done. Still waiting for the round windows and the tarmac to be poured out front:



The walls have been painted, the spotlights mounted, and a guardrail (originally made for sailboats) installed:



I also installed an electricity line and an air compressor:

[denson]

How cool is that!

Good luck, dude. This is what we all want. That monster garage, full of cars and without annoyances.

Great job.